Which coin really got you into ancients?

For me, it's this 2500 years old Ionia Miletos 1/12th stater. I mean I had a few ancients before that, but only this coin really piqued my interest in actively seeking out ancient coinage. It's the artistic talent, cost, and antiquity of this particular coin that made me appreciate ancients more.
It's the seller's picture, I could never take such a detailed image of such a tiny coin, which makes me marvel at how those engraves engraved these tiny coins down to the lion's eyeball! did they use some sort of magnifying lenses or what?!

 

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These are the first three ancient coins I ever acquired. Not sure which one got me hooked.

 

I am not currently actively collecting ancients (not enough money for everything!), but this was my first. I still have this one. I love the history, and the high relief is fantastic:

 

I couldn't afford it but holding an Alexander the Great stater at the Pegasi table at an ANA show caused me to be bit dangerously strong by the ancient bug.

Edit: In the third grade (age ~9), our teacher asked us to write a poem about what we will be doing in the future. One of my lines said: "I hold a coin from 600 BC". At that time, I only dreamed of holding it, not owning one, so I think I'm in the right collecting sphere! (I admittedly also was certain I would become a 'kangaroo biologist' which sadly didn't pan out... and I still haven't been to Australia. Nine year old me would be sorely disappointed)

 

It would certainly be my first ancient coin. I had been collecting US coins for maybe a year, and having grown up with the ANA museum nearby I was able to visit and view the coins there. I was impressed with the ancient coins, but never conceived that these could be bought or were affordable. My local coin shop happened to have a few Roman imperials, and I bought this one:
Imperial Rome
Caracalla, r. 198-217 A.D. (211 A.D.)
Rome Mint, AR Denarius, 20.28mm x 2.8 grams
Obv.: ANTONINVS PIVS AVG BRIT. Laureate bust, right
Rev.: P M TR P XIIII COS III P P. Pax, draped, advancing left, holding branch in right hand and sceptre in left hand
Ref.: SRCV 6824, RIC IV-1 Caracalla 184, p. 238.
Note: My First Ancient Coin

It didn’t take long for me to realize that if ancient coins could be bought, so coin medieval coins. While I had (have...) an interest in ancient history, I have long had a love for medieval history. But I still buy ancient coins (not that many this year though... although I find that when I get to the relevant topics in my class, I start getting the itch to buy an ancient coin. Currently have my eye on a certain Republican Denarius if I am unable to acquire my next medieval target at auction)

 

For me, it was this coin:

The clean uncluttered aspect of the coin. Proud Tanit and a horse that looks like its ready to jump off the coin. I waited for years to buy one but in the meantime I sought to increase my knowledge of ancient coins and their times. Now I have many Carthiginian, Roman, and a few Parthian coins. The enjoyment of the hobby is immeasurable.

 

This one:

I will never part with it. It does deserve a new photo and updated ID.

 

I collected US and world coins for a while when I was young (say 6-12 years old). I enjoyed seeing photos of ancient coins in books, and I was vaguely aware that it was possible to collect them, but the local coin shops had just a couple of silver Greek and Roman pieces that were well out of my price range, so I didn't think much more about it.

I got back into coins again in college. The coin shop near campus got in a bunch of inexpensive ancients sometime during the winter of 1992-3 (this was when the Balkans were just being opened up to metal detecting, and lots of ancient coins started entering the market). I bought a few coins from the $3 box (AE3 and AE4 LRBs) and a couple of $5 (mainly Roman Provincial, with a few worn large Roman Imperials). I managed to identify them using books from the college library, and I was hooked. This is the first I was able to identify, Constantius II from Sirmium:

 

Reading Roman history piqued my curiosity about Roman coins and years ago I one day realized that many affordable examples existed. On a trip to a local coin store, I asked if they had any ancients and they pulled out a box that contained this inexpensive, but mostly legible, Probus coin:


Which led to the realization that other affordable ancients remained, so I bought the following coins:

Constantius II (from a local coin show):


Nero Hemidrachm (from a coin shop in Denver):


My first Republcan, Clodius Turrinus (from the same local coin shop as the Probus):


All of these led to what I consider my current favorite, this Marcus Aurelius that I posted in this forum a few months ago:



So no one coin got me into ancients, the concept of owning ancient coins along with their surprising and relative affordability made me pursue some and then my purchases gradually increased in scope and cost. I'm still not sure how I'll outdo the Marcus Aurelius, but something will likely come along.

 

I'd been collecting British Colonial coinage for about 25 years but had always been interested in Roman history.....This was my first....
Licinius I AE Follis 20mm/3.43gr (Emperors name Misspelled)
Obverse-IMP LICINVS PF AVG- laureate, cuirassed bust right
Reverse-REV SOLI INVICTO COMITI- Sol standing right, looking left, chlamys across chest and over his left arm, holding globe and raising right hand. C-S across fields
Exergue-PARL- minted 313-318AD Arles

 

The first ancient coin I bought as an adult (so not counting the several wretched LRBs I bought at a local coin shop when I was 8 or 9, for a total cost of about a dollar) was an Alexander III drachm, not unlike @physics-fan3.14 's. I bought it on impulse in February 1986, while browsing in a store that mostly specialized in antiquities:

Macedon, Alexander III (under Philip III Arrhidaeus), AR Drachm, Miletos mint, 323-319 BCE. Obv. Head of beardless Herakles to right, wearing lion skin headdress / Rev. Zeus seated left on stool-throne, holding long scepter in left hand, with eagle standing right with closed wings on his right hand; KH monogram (Price Monogram 476) in left field; in right field, AΛEXANDROU. Price 2121 [Price, M., The Coinage in the Name of Alexander the Great and Philip Arrhidaeus (London, 1991)]; Pella database at http://numismatics.org/pella/id/price.2121?lang=en; Müller 847 [Müller, L., Numismatique d'Alexandre le Grand; Appendice les monnaies de Philippe II et III, et Lysimaque (Copenhagen, 1855-58)]. 16 mm., 4.21 g. Purchased from Harmer Rooke Numismatists, Ltd., New York City, 21 Feb. 1986.





The first Roman coin I bought, also in the mid- to late-1980s, was this Republican denarius. I bought it at a coin show at which I was primarily looking at British coins, my main collecting interest at the time. There was something about it that I found very appealing, despite its less-than-stellar condition.

Roman Republic, Ti. Veturius, AR Denarius 137 BCE. Obv. Helmeted head of Mars right, TI. VET (monogrammed) and X behind head. / Rev. Youth holding pig, kneeling left, head right, between two soldiers who touch the pig with their swords, ROMA above. RSC I Veturia 1, Crawford 234/1, Sydenham 527, Sear RCV I 111 (ill.), BMCRR Italy 550. 18 mm., 3.8 g. [First Republican denarius to have head of anyone other than Roma on obverse.]





Over the next 30 years or so, I bought only a handful of ancient coins (less than 10 in total), all of them Roman Imperial coins, because British coins and medals remained my primary collecting interest. Unfortunately, I didn't keep great records of the dates of purchase of those I bought. I know that one of them, which I bought around 2005-2007, was this Domitian:

Domitian (son of Vespasian) AR Denarius 88-89 AD. Obv. Laureate head right, IMP CAES DOMIT AVG GERM P M TRP VIII/ Rev. Minerva advancing right w/javelin & shield, IMP XIX COS XIIII CENS PPP. RIC II-1 667 (2007 ed.), old RIC II 137 (1926 ed.), RSC II 252, BMCRE 151. 17.78 mm., 3.42 g. Ex: Gorny & Mosch.





I didn't start focusing exclusively on ancient coins until late 2017 and the beginning of 2018. (I had to sell the vast majority of my British coins and medals in 2015-2016, including almost all of my collection of British gold coins. When I was in a position to start collecting again I realized that I would never be able to afford to recreate my old collection, and that it would be too emotionally fraught to try to do so. So I switched to ancient coins instead.) I would have to go through the entirety of my two three-ring binders of documentation and photos of my Roman coins to figure out which I bought the earliest (I keep them in chronological order, not in the order I bought them). But these are the two earliest purchases listed in either my VCoins or my MA-Shops account. both purchased in Dec. 2017:

Elagabalus AR Denarius, 218-219 AD, Antioch Mint. Obv. Laureate draped bust right, no beard, ANTONINVS PIVS FEL AVG/Rev. Two standards between two legionary eagles, CONCORDIA MILIT. RIC IV-2 187, RSC III 15, Sear RCV II 7505 (ill.). 18 mm., 2.8 g.



Maximinus I Thrax AR Denarius, 236/38 AD. Obv. Laureate bust right, draped & cuirassed, MAXIMINVS PIVS AVG GERM/ Rev. Fides stdg., facing, head left, holding standard in each hand, FIDES MILITVM. RIC IV-2 18A, RSC III 9, Sear RCV III 8307. 20 mm., 2.77 g.



I purchased the next two in early February 2018:

Severus Alexander AR Denarius. Obv. Laureate head right, IMP C M AVR SEV ALEXAND AVG. / Rev. Fides standing left holding standard in each hand, FIDES MILITVM. RIC IV-2 139, RSC III 52, Sear RCV II 7864. 19 mm., 2.9 g.



Diva Faustina I [Senior] (wife of Antoninus Pius), AR Denarius, prob. 150-160 AD [see Dinsdale, infra at p. 216 -- including this type among coins issued upon and after 10th anniversary of Faustina’s deification]. Obv: Draped bust right, DIVA FAVSTINA / Rev: Ceres, veiled, standing left, holding torch in left hand and holding right hand up in greeting, CONSECRATIO. RIC III 382b corr.*, RSC II 165a, Sear RCV II 4593, Dinsdale 020610 [Dinsdale, Paul H, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius Caesar AD 138-161: Antonine Coinage (2018) at p. 249; photo at p. 254]. 17 mm., 3.3 g.



* RIC III 382b erroneously describes Faustina’s bust on obverse as veiled. (RIC III 382a has different obverse legend [DIVA AVG FAVSTINA]).

By the time I had bought these four coins (plus whatever else I may have purchased from other sources during that period), to go along with the ones I already had, I was definitely hooked!

 

Still haven't found it.

But as long as interesting posts from you folks keep showing up in my Recent Topics, I'm betting it's only a matter of time...

 

My First Ancients, $250USD in-hand, fully loaded cost.


Makedon Alexander III 336-323 BC AR Drachm 2



Athens Attica Owl Tetradrachmae

 

I bought this as in an antique shop in Stratford while on a trip to the UK when I was 13:


It was unidentified, so my next purchase was this book:

Immediately hooked.

 

What a chance that your first Roman coin turned out to be a dupondius of Severus Alexander!

Two of my earliest Roman coins were also from reigns that I would later specialize in: a sestertius of Antoninus Pius and a denarius of Julia Domna struck during Caracalla's sole reign.

 

I like the stories that go with many of the Roman coins. I bought several LRBs and especially liked:

Victorinus, Emperor of Gallic Empire 269 – 271. The Gallic Empire broke away from the Roman Empire from 260 – 274. Victorinus was a successful military commander. He was tribune in 266/267 and co-consul of Rome with Postumus in 268. He succeeded Postumus (Imp of G E 260 – 269) who was killed when he refused to let his army sack a city his army had just defeated, Mogontiacum. Postumus was succeeded by Marius, who probably let the troops sack, Mogontiacum. Marius was killed two or three months later and Victorinus was declared Imperor. Victorinus was killed by one of his commanders whose wife he had seduced. ​

Stories of the Romans and Sabins converted me to RR.

 

My Roman Republic coin I got immediately after my Athens Tets and ATG Drachm. This really got me into my primary focus of the Roman Republic and the Entities they interacted with. I got it because the Janus was a symbol of Early Rome / Republic.


RR M Furius LF Philus AR Denarius 119 BCE Janus Trophy Carnyx Cr 281-1 Sear 156

 

Funny how that works, eh? I was, like, Wow, it matches my handle on CoinTalk! What a coincidence!

@Orfew's first coin was an Otho, which could make for an expensive habit...

That first one is an as, actually. My dupondius of the type is considerably better:

 

I had owned a few sundry common Roman coins that I never paid more than $5 for, this was my first major ancient purchase. Wanted an Athenian Tet for a long time before I sprang for this one 15-16 years ago.

 

Indeed, an As not a dupondius!

I think I was misled by your avatar.